Control elements, such as electric and/or electronic switching devices designed in the manner of a joystick and/or of a cursor switch, are used for manually selecting and/or triggering functions in a motor vehicle. Inter alia, such shifting devices are used by a user to input data for an electrical appliance, e.g. in the case of car radios, navigation devices, on-board computers or similar appliances in motor vehicles. In particular, a control element of this kind can also be used as an electronic gear selector switch for a shift-by-wire transmission in motor vehicles.
A control element of this kind has a handle, which can be designed in the manner of a selector lever, for example. The handle is mounted on and/or in a housing in such a way that the handle can be moved manually. There is a drive in the housing. In turn, the drive is in operative connection and/or can be brought into operative connection with the handle, such that the handle can be positioned non-manually by means of the drive and/or the manual movement of the handle can be blocked and/or the manual movement of the handle can be enabled. It has been found that certain noises associated with movement and/or shifting can occur at and/or in the control element.
It is the underlying object of the invention to develop the control element in such a way that such noise is reduced. In particular, the acoustics, measured in decibels for example, are minimized during the shifting processes of the control element and/or the shifting noise for the control element is improved in quality.